Australian Rules Football Cheer Squads of the Eighties

2 BALTIC JOURNAL OF SPORT & HEALTH SCIENCES No. 4(107); 2017; 2–16; ISSN 2351-6496 AUSTRALIAN RULES FOOTBALL CHEER SQUADS OF THE EIGHTIES: A CASE STUDY OF THE WEST PERTH CHEER SQUAD 1984–1986 Kieran James University of the West of Scotland, Paisley, Scotland ABSTRACT Background. In this article I review key studies in the academic literature on football (soccer) hooliganism in the UK and around the world. I apply Armstrong’s anthropological approach to our 15–20 member West Perth unofficial cheer squad (hard-core supporter group) of 1984–1986 (Australian Rules football’s WAFL competition). Method. This is an ethnographic study of the West Perth cheer squad 1984–86 told from the viewpoint of the author who was co-founder and co-leader of this group. It is both strength and weakness of the research data that the author was an active participant in the events rather than a researcher performing typical ethnographic research as a non-participant. Results. I find that the anthropological approach is able to explain many aspects of our cheer squad’s culture and members’ behaviours including the quick disintegration of the cheer squad early in the 1986 season without anyone officially ending it. However, our group members did not adjust their commitment downwards during the cheer squad’s years of action; most members attended all home-and-away matches during May 1984–March 1986. This research also shows the diffusion of Australian Rules football supporter culture from Melbourne to Adelaide and from these two cities to Perth, to a lesser extent, and the impact of TV news reports of British football hooliganism on our group’s style and macho posturing. Conclusion. Detailed long-term ethnographic studies of individual football (soccer) hooligan firms and Australian Rules’ cheer squads are the most vital type of new research. Keywords: football hooliganism, neo-tribes, Perth history, sports history, Western Australian football. INTRODUCTION eneral Introduction. “By channelling the of Giulianotti; the Marxist approach of Taylor, competitive hostility outwards towards Clarke, and Hargreaves; the “ethogenic” approach the tribe on the other side of the [usually of Marsh; the “psychological reversal theory” Gmetaphorical] hill, social bonds within one’s own approach of Kerr; and the historically sensitive / group are reaffirmed and maintained” (Marsh, historical approaches of King and Robson. I apply 1978, p. 50). Armstrong’s (1998) anthropological approach to In this article I review key studies in the our 15–20 member West Perth cheer squad (hard- academic literature on football hooliganism in the core supporter group) of 1984–1986 (Australian UK and around the world. The academic theories can Rules football’s WAFL competition). I find that the be divided into: the early dominant “figurational” anthropological approach is able to explain many or “process-sociological” approach of Dunning aspects of our cheer squad’s culture and members’ and colleagues; the “anthropological” approach of behaviours including the quick disintegration of the Armstrong and Harris (with its focus on fluid “post- cheer squad early in the 1986 season without anyone modern” “neo-tribes”); the post-modern approach officially ending it. However, our group members AUSTRALIAN RULES FOOTBALL CHEER SQUADS OF THE EIGHTIES: A CASE STUDY OF THE WEST PERTH CHEER SQUAD 1984–1986 3 did not adjust their commitment downwards during “neo-tribes” (Armstrong, 1998) to our West Perth the cheer squad’s years of action; most members cheer squad 1984–1986 and draw appropriate attended all home-and-away matches during May theoretically-informed conclusions from this 1984–March 1986. application. We also use Peter Marsh’s concept West Perth has been a foundation member of the “illusion of violence” (Marsh, 1978) which of the Perth-based Western Australian Football suggests that, in order to gain and demonstrate League (WAFL) competition since 1885. However, control over territory and resources, rival groups the WAFL was reduced to second-tier status engage in symbolic behaviours (advances and when Perth-based West Coast Eagles entered the retreats) which more often than not involve only expanded Victorian Football League (VFL) (now mild violence or no violence at all. If group self- Australian Football League (AFL)) in time for the respect, integrity, and territorial control can be 1987 season (Devaney, n.d.). The VFL/AFL now achieved without actual violence then, as the operates as a de facto national premier league (first theory goes, so much the better. division). As in American professional sport, there Motivation. It is important to study the is no promotion to or relegation from the VFL/ behaviours and cultures of Australian Rules AFL to the various second-tier leagues. During the football hard-core supporters and cheer squads twentieth century, up to 1982, the VFL/AFL was as this has been an under-researched area. Much based solely in the state of Victoria (and 11 of its of what we do know to date comes largely from 12 clubs were then based in the city of Melbourne). personal memories and anecdotes and from A cheer squad (an Australian Rules football occasional comments and digressions in Australian term) is a semi-organized group of hard-core Rules football history books of various kinds (see, supporters (comprising typically but not always for example, Muyt, 2006). a male teenager majority) which sits in the same Background. The three largest population strategic place at home matches and which supports centres where Australian Rules football is the most the team through chants, songs, flags, and banners. popular winter sport are Melbourne, Adelaide, and It may attend some or all away matches, and usually Perth. Traditionally the Melbourne-based VFL/ sits in a humble location at away venues (near the AFL competition had and has the best football, the entrance which is closest to the train station for largest crowds, and the most passionate supporters example) and rarely tries to take over the home compared to the local competitions based in the cheer squad’s territory. Australian Rules football other two cities (the SANFL in Adelaide and the cheer squads should not be confused with the cheer WAFL in Perth). Football supporter culture has squads of American Football which are, obviously, typically diffused from Melbourne to Adelaide completely different. The dominant culture at (654 kilometres to the west) and, only to a lesser Melbourne- and Adelaide-based cheer squads, extent and at a slower rate, from these two centres since the formation of the first cheer squad at VFL/ to Perth. Slow diffusion to Perth is largely due to AFL club Richmond in 1959 (Critchley, 2010), distance: Perth is located far away on the country’s has included an important fraternal ethos among west coast 2.131 kilometres from Adelaide and rival cheer squad members especially away from 2.721 kilometres from Melbourne. Until recent the grounds. The cheer squads took on some of the years poorer people rarely travelled from Perth to “illusion of violence” (Marsh, 1978) or tough-guy Melbourne but travel from Adelaide to Melbourne posturing from British and European hooligans was much more common due to the fact that it was and ultras. However, this was more in terms of within easy driving distance. As a result seventies style and posturing; cheer squads rarely sought and eighties football supporter culture diffused out or engaged in actual violent actions. Another faster and to a greater extent from Melbourne to influence arguably was the ultras groups formed Adelaide than from these two cities to Perth. by Australian football (soccer) supporters from In the peak cheer squad years of the VFL/AFL European ethnic immigrant backgrounds including in the seventies and eighties, when the then it was those connected to clubs such as Melbourne a Melbourne suburban competition plus Geelong, Croatia; Sydney Croatia; South Melbourne Hellas; cheer squad members from various clubs would and Sydney Olympic (James & Walsh, 2017). catch up with each other after games at Flinders The aim of this article is to apply Gary Street Station and shout across station platforms Armstrong’s theory of fluid “post-modern” the scores from their respective grounds. There was 4 Kieran James also a place called Classic Cafe in Melbourne city- might have had 20–30 people on a good day, and centre where cheer squad members congregated our West Perth group had a stable core of 15–20. and interacted on Saturday nights after the regular By the second half of our existence we had around Saturday afternoon home-and-away games (Muyt, 15 large red-and-blue flags or one flag per core 2006). If anything, cheer squad members have member. been less violent than ordinary supporters of West Perth in fact had three cheer squads during Australian Rules’ clubs. A distinction has been the 1984–1986 period: (a) Fat Pam’s cheer squad, made between the inner and outer cheer squad at which disbanded at the end of the 1983 season but Collingwood (Muyt, 2006) where the inner cheer continued to still make the banners the players ran squad was the approved membership that adhered through before the game; (b) our unofficial group to fraternal cheer squad ethics whereas the outer situated behind the northern-end goals, which cheer squad was the hooligan element not under replaced Fat Pam’s group which had formerly the restraining influence of cheer squad leaders. used that location; and (c) the Grandstand Falcons, However, I argue that, despite this, the “illusion a group of older guys then in their twenties who of violence” has always been important, to some sat at the top of the Leederville Oval grandstand extent, for Melbourne- and Adelaide-based cheer and sang songs (but had no flags or floggers).

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